The usage paradigm created for digital audio players in recent years is based upon the ability of the user to identify and select certain audio tracks or collections for download onto their digital audio players. This paradigm can be seen in any of the major music services such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Yahoo Jukebox, and Napster. It relies on the ability of a user to actually find what he is looking for. Users who are avid consumers of music but do not rely on specific artist or song knowledge, such as radio listeners, may be left with a frustrating experience. In addition, even those users who are comfortable with operating within this paradigm are faced with complicated devices that require sometimes as many as five menu selection tasks before the playing of music can commence. Many times, a user just wants to power-on a digital audio player and start playing a certain type of music without navigating through various menu levels.
FM radio is a technology that does not suffer from the two problems described above. However, FM radio, in its current analog form, does not deliver a satisfying audio experience. In addition, FM radio is geography centric, and a continuous experience is not possible when traveling long distances by car and may be totally impossible under certain circumstances, such as when traveling by airplane or boat or when in remote locations. Streaming audio solutions, such as Internet radio, solve the audio experience problem and provide a satisfying experience in delivering rich content with simplicity. However, this is only available in network-connected environments (even more limited than FM), and PCs and some digital audio players that provide a network connection have user interfaces that can be as, if not more, complicated than the digital audio players described above.